The Explorations of a Wee Pair of Scottish Feet

March 8, 2017March 26, 2017

A Newcomer’s Observations

It’s been nearly eight weeks since we arrived in Wellington. Wellington a very multicultural city, and a fun fact if you didn’t know already, it is the world’s windiest city! I don’t doubt it – it can be very fierce! Everywhere we go, the people that we meet tell us this has been the worst summer on record in Wellington. There are certainly some days that remind of a bad winter’s day in Scotland! It encourages best use of the lovely warm sunshine when it arrives! We’re glad we have more than a few weeks of a holiday to explore.

Starting to settle into NZ life, getting used to a new way, we’ve been spending time cat sitting to save money when we’re able to, Air BnB when we can’t. We’ve had the company of Basil, Toby, Jasper and George! We reckon we’ve saved over $1000 in accomodation. Quite pricey, looking at $3-400 for a week’s stay for two people in an Air BnB or hostel, this definitely offers a better alternative and also allows us to explore different suburbs and transport routes. My favourites so far being the suburbs of Petone and Mt Victoria, the train ride into Wellington from Lower Hutt might just have knocked my Harbour Bridge commute off the top spot…! It is an extremely pretty view (on a good day when it’s sunny!) curving its way round the harbour to roll into Wellington Central! 🙂

*apologies for the poor reflection!

A few little observations from a humble newcomer to the city… Messing with my head, here the $1 coins are smaller than $2 coins. This is the opposite to Australia and totally throws me off. Makes logical sense though! Getting better, I still need to check before I hand them over! Loving the $5 penguin adorned notes though!

In Australia, there were Woolworths and Coles supermarkets. Here, the Woolworths logo sits afront a supermarket called Countdown. New World is the other ‘big one’ with Pak n Save offering the ‘low cost’ alternative. (I still find it quite expensive!) Very Costco like, they add tax at the checkout… Confusing. In contrast to Australia though, the supermarkets here sell alcohol in them. In Australia a bottle shop needed to be sourced. Limited to beer, wine and cider in the supermarket here, spirits still require a specialist shop. The UK is spoilt for cheap choice! It is also extremely weird having plastic bags on offer so freely! I had got so used to not having them. Scotland has done well getting rid of them and encouraging reusable bag use. A new New Zealand word, trolleys here are called trundles! But not at every shop just to keep you on your toes!

In food related news:

Sweet potatoes are known by their Māori name, ‘kumara’ here. Find out more about the history here.

Peppers are, like in Australia, known as capsicums. No zucchinis, here they are courgettes.

There are new vegetables on the supermarket shelf. A starchy root crop, we’ve seen Taro in the supermarket. Not tried it yet though.

It is most deliciously nice to be reacquainted with timtams and mint slices.

Irn Bru can be found here! Something always more exciting when you’re not in Scotland.

Here there is a contender for Subway’s crown – Pita Pit. The same but with pita breads. Very tasty! I recommend.

Something that is hard for me to get my head round is the amount of British TV on TV here! There’s even an entire channel dedicated to it…! Take Me Out (albeit a few years old), Graham Norton, Corrie, Emmerdale, Distraction and Taskmaster amongst many, it is hard to avoid it on regular scheduled TV…! I am becoming quite fond of Kirsty and Phil’s ‘Love it or List it’ which I never even watched in the UK!

Exploring our way round, managing quite a few things here including the Weta Cave – the studio that made Lord of the Rings effects, doing a tour of the NZ parliament, the National War Memorial, Te Papa museum, the Writer’s walk, the cable car ride, catching the view from Mt Victoria, plane spotting from Lyall Bay, Korokoro Dam, Zealandia eco sanctuary, drinking beer at the Garage Project, sunset watching in Porirua and enjoying a nice drive round the Wellington coast today, here are a few pics from the last eight weeks.